25/10/2015 PM - Moon, revisits from last night

[gooseholla]

Hi all,

I headed out again with my 8 x 30 Charles Frank binoculars to look at the moon. Coupled with my favourite book for this purpose 'Astronomy with a Small Telescope' by James Muirden. What I like about it is that for each phase of the Moon if gives a photographic representation and a skeleton map of key features, most, if not all, of which are visible in binoculars. This makes It really great for learning the Moon.

Was really great to see the whole Moon in perspective. The seas spreading across its face, the distinct colours of deep greys leading to brilliant whites. It is hard to know where to begin with such a view so I started at the beginning as they say, over by the Seas of Tranquillity, Serenity and Fertility. The first thing I noticed was the different colours that each see had. The middle one, Tranquillity was a much darker grey, bordering on a greyish blue to my eyes. This carried on through Mare Vaporum and down to the tip of Mare Nubium, making a distinct U Shape at the bottom.

I then got distracted by the bright white objects in this area. Kepler and Copernicus were bright, forming a pair of eyes. Aristarchus shone brightly, glinting like a mirror or piece of glass outside on a bright day. Tycho and its rays were on display but not as impressive as yesterday. To the top right of Tycho was a bright white patch, though I am not sure which. While at Tycho, a bright ray heading up and cutting through the Mare Nubium was seen. This terminated near a pair of grey patches, which were a much lighter colour than the deep grey talked about above. Other bright white features seen were a few where Serenity met Vaporum, the area to the lower left of Tranquillity and Nectar and the craters Proclus to the left of Crisis and Langrenus near Fertility. The white of the area to the left of Tranquillity and Nectar lead into the lovely rays of Tycho, being interspersed with dark grey matter, like the pattern on a basketball or a watermelon.

Moving to the terminator not so many craters were on display as yesterday. There were a couple of objects past Aristarchus which cut into the terminator giving a 3D effect, as if they were sticking up into space. Down to the lower left of Tycho a small bump stuck out from the edge of the Moon leading straight into a divet which broke the roundness of the edge of the Moon.

I then went back to looking at the seas. I noted that Frigoris was a different colour to the rest. It was a ighter grey and wasn't so bold or contrasted as the rest. I saw the Mare Undarum by holding my binoculars very steady. Also, to me the area of Procellarum and Imbrium, with the two craters Copernicus and Kepler remind me sort of an elephant marching with its ears out, Nubium its trunk. You've heard of the man in the moon, well meet el goosey's Elephant in the Moon!!!

After scouring the whole surface again I was satisfied I wasn't going to see any more so I moved on to a few objects I had observed last night.

Pleiades

Tonight the stars in the saucepan shape were on display but seemed less bright. Only about eight faint stars were counted around the brighter ones.

Hyades

Still an impressive sight but much fainter and less stars. It is as if someone had a bought a few of the gems from the shop window.  

Andromeda Galaxy

This was even harder to find today. It was barely distinguishable from the background and only a tiny faint core was on display. It was like a battery dying, causing a bright light to slowly fade into obscurity and nothingness.

I also looked at a new object tonight. The central area of Perseus around Mirphak. There were about twenty stars below it and only three solitary stars above it. A nice view nonetheless.

A bit cold tonight but a lovely night out. Anyone else see the lovely coloured halo around the Moon, or just me and the possible light clouds?
 

John